The MPAA is waging war on Kim Dotcom, years after Megaupload was shut down

Apr 8, 2014 09:40 GMT  ·  By

The troubles continue to pile up on Kim Dotcom’s plate. Although he already has a lot of legal troubles in New Zealand after his home got raided two years ago, Dotcom just got sued again.

The new lawsuit puts the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) at the center of things and the organization’s ire is directed at Megaupload, Dotcom and two other former execs of the company.

“When Megaupload.com was shut down in 2012 by U.S. law enforcement, it was by all estimates the largest and most active infringing website targeting creative content in the world,” said Senior Executive Vice President and Global General Counsel of the MPAA Steven Fabrizio.

They estimate that infringing content on Megaupload.com and its affiliates was available in at least 20 languages. “According to the government’s indictment, the site reported more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and cost U.S. copyright owners more than half a billion dollars,” the senior VP said.

The lawsuit was filed by the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Disney Enterprises, Inc., Paramount Pictures Corporation, Universal City Studios Productions LLLP, Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Fabrizio accuses Megaupload of not being a cloud storage service at all, but rather an “unlawful hub for mass distribution.” He says that anyone could indeed upload files, but if they were not downloaded often enough, the file would be deleted unless that individual was a paying subscriber.

However, if that individual uploaded a stolen movie that would then downloaded time and time again, he’d be paid for his efforts.

“That’s not a storage facility; that’s a business model designed to encourage theft – and make its owners very rich in the process. There’s nothing new or innovative about that. That’s just a profiteer using existing technology to try to get rich off of someone else’s hard work,” Fabrizio accuses.

On the other hand, Kim Dotcom took to his Twitter account to fight off some of these statements. On one hand, he says that files above 100MB did not earn rewards on Megaupload and slammed Hollywood claims that Megaupload was paying users to upload pirated movies.

On the other hand, he denied that non-premium Megaupload user files were deleted after 21 days. Furthermore, the DOJ should be able to confirm this since it has the company’s database.

Dotcom doesn’t seem to be too concerned with the case, saying that this is all a “load of nonsense” and won’t make it through the scrutiny of the facts.